SOCIO–ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT …

[Pages:5]Sarhad J. Agric. Vol.26, No.3, 2010

SOCIO?ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT IN PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN

NIAZ MUHAMMAD*, ALI ASKAR** and RUKHSANA JAVED***

*

Department of Sociology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar ? Pakistan.

**

Department of Anthropology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar ? Pakistan.

*** Jinnah College for Women, University of Peshawar - Pakistan.

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the impact of urban women's empowerment on the socio-economic conditions on family level. Two residential phases of Hayatabad in Peshawar city such as Phase-I and Phase-V were selected as universe of the study. First, the empowered women were identified in the sample areas and then from amongst them 80 were interviewed under purposive sampling technique through questionnaire. The research study found that empowered women played an important role in supplementing their family budget; they shared in all kinds of decision-making related to family affairs; they observed no gender discrimination in health and education of their children; their children got better education and developed better personality traits such as self confidence, manners and permissiveness. The study recommends for the educated status of the rural community to extend the practice of empowering women for the sake of their improved standard of living.

Key Words: Women's empowerment, family structure, gender equilibrium

Citation: Muhammad, N. A. Askar and R. Javed. 2010. Socio-economic impacts of women's empowerment in Peshawar, Pakistan. Sarhad J. Agric. 26(3): 461 - 465

INTRODUCTION The empowerment of women is highly important for human development and international community has

been constantly stressing upon women's participation in different spheres of life. Prior to look into the impact of women empowerment, it is necessary to discuss the nature of empowerment in order to understand properly the radius of its impact. Women's empowerment means the provision of right to women to forward their say in important decisions and ensure bias-free access to resources. ICPD (1994) has taken into consideration the women's empowerment from various angles and given five situations where any one can lead to empowering a woman: women's sense of self-growth, their right to have and to determine choices, their right to have an access to opportunities and resources, their right to have the power to control their lives both inside and outside the home, and their ability to influence the direction of social change to create more social and economic order.

Different people have defined the concept of empowerment from different viewpoints. Naila (2003) defines women's empowerment as a process of giving ability to the neglected women to evolve the future strategy in their lives. This ability ensures access to material and social resources; to agency where decision-making is processed; and achievements that are the well outcomes. IFAD (1999) has hinted at four processes leading to women's empowerment: changes in women's mobility and social interaction, changes in women's labour patterns, changes in women's access to and control over resources; and changes in women's control over decision-making. The encyclopedia of Wikipedia refers to sociological empowerment as often addressing members of groups (disability, race, ethnicity or gender) that social discrimination processes have excluded from decision-making processes.

The application of such definitions regarding women's empowerment in traditional societies was not immediately carried out as it created some serious threats to their respective social structures, which onwardly amounted to flat resistance. Apart from it, no people of a practicing culture can be pressurized to adopt the culture or cultural traits of others' cultures; rather they can be gradually mobilized through education, media or any other appraisal/advocacy programme highlighting the role of both men and women in the development process in their respective countries. Empowerment, in fact, does not mean any desperate attitude of women towards their men as being projected in a distorted shape; rather it mitigates the financial burden of a family and also dispels wrong impression about women to be a liability.

Zahid-ul-Islam (2005) states that Muslim women in Bangladesh got access to resources and participated in the projects related to a country's development after they got educated. They contributed a lot to the economic prosperity of Bangladesh. However, he conditioned empowering the women to their education. PCI Media Impact

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(2009) highlights that women empowerment has ensured women's access to education, food producing, family planning and healthcare facility.

The past three decades have witnessed an increasing amount of awareness in reducing gender bias in the social, economic and political access to fundamental human rights such as nutrition, primary health and education.

Mughadam (2005) viewed the idea of gender development contributory in reducing the influence of gender sensitization at work places and encouraged both the sexes to put their respective countries on the route of development and prosperity. The traditional societies have been conceiving the term gender exclusively as a matter of women's interest, but it is not a fact as it concerns women and men both in terms of their status in a society. Gender equality refers to that stage of human social development at which rights, responsibilities and opportunities of individuals are determined irrespective of being male or female.

Malhotra et al. (2002) have referred to the continuous struggle of different movements at different times which provided women with ample opportunities to ensure their participation in economic, political and other activities of the life. Such breakthrough in their lives enlightened the women to make independent decisions on important occasions, and also to mitigate the magnitude of violence and discrimination against them. The United Nations (1999) supported the practice of women's paid employment in overthrowing the perception of women to be non-economic asset for families; rather their employment stands contributory in furnishing opportunity for making investment, educating girls and facilitating health. In Pakistan, the women's empowerment has taken a serious shape making the population into two apparent camps: the opposing and supporting.

In Pukhtun society, women empowerment is conceived as a sin like act, as they have their own codes of life entitled `Pukhtunwali' and any thing going beyond that can not happen. However, the influence of the growing rate of education has handed over a reasonable amount of authority to women in the Asian countries including Pakistan. It does not mean that men have been sidewalled; rather men and women have collectively started doing all tasks of life.

The present study focuses on exploring various impacts of women's empowerment such as family finances, decision making/sharing, family relations, their children's education and socialization, and observance of gender discrimination among children. Following are the objectives of the study.

Objectives i. To identify various socio-economic impacts of women's empowerment in the study area. ii. To identify the nature of family where women are empowered in different spheres of life. iii. To seek the opinion of the empowered women regarding their satisfaction with the existing conditions.

Empirical Framework Women's empowerment is very much associated to the family affairs as they get inspiration of

empowerment from their respective households and then they reciprocate them with onward benefits. On the basis of this thematic view, the framework was designed containing some basic questions:

i. Educated families are assumed to be more conducive for empowering women to get employment and participate in important decisions.

ii. Empowered women are mentally enlightened and could help reduce the family problems, assist their families economically and better educate as well as socialize their children.

MATERIALS AND METHODS Hayatabad is a posh area of Peshawar and its residents belong to different parts of the Frontier Province. It

comprises of seven phases and two of them such as Phase-1 and Phases-V were selected for the study because of remarkable number of empowered women there. This is purely a primary data and does not have any kind of subjective involvement. A total of 80 respondents from both the phases (40 from each phase) were interviewed under purposive sampling technique for the following reasons.

i. The target phases had a large number of educated women and mostly were graduates or above. ii. These areas had a great number of employed women working in different positions at different workplaces.

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First, the empowered women were identified through two trained female students in a pilot study. The identification strategy was based on women's educated status, working status and participation in decision-making related to different matters like marriage, life style, children schooling etc. Later on, a phase wise list of such women was prepared and then scrutinized for final listing from them. A total number of 80 sheets of questionnaire were distributed among them and the process of distribution was done mostly on the Sunday, which is an off day for the working women. The sampled women did not hesitate to furnish accurate data; rather they remained very much cooperative in this regard. It is interesting to mention here that the male heads of respondents did not oppose approaching their women for interview.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The obtained data was systematically arranged on different classification sheets and then put into the relevant tables. The tabulated data is explained and analyzed in a meaning full way reaching to logical inferences.

Educated Status of the Empowered Women

Table I indicates that 45% of women had master degrees mainly in the subjects related to the faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences, 39% were graduates and 15% were undergraduates. Only one respondent had M.Phil degree in the subject of Chemistry.

The data shows that a great majority of sampled women (84%) had a higher education such as MA/M.Sc and BA/B.Sc, which enabled them to develop a broad faculty of mind and also helped curb undue subjugation. The power structure in such families remained intact inspite of fact that patriarchy was not observed in strict sense. In the light of the above data it becomes clear that education and empowerment are associated with each other because majority of the empowered women were educated. Zahid-ul-Islam (2005) has also observed the association between empowerment and education of women in Bangladesh.

Table I Qualification of the empowered women

Education

Frequency

M. Phil/Ph.D

01

MA/M.Sc

36

BA/B.Sc

31

Less than graduation

12

Total

80

Source: Field Survey, 2009

Percentage 01 45 39 15 100

Family Relations and Empowerment

Table II shows that 75 % sample women got married with their consent while 25% denied involvement of consent behind their marriages. The table further indicates the nature of relationship between husband and wife. 82 % of women endorsed relations as working with their husbands whereas the rest 18% mentioned their tense relations over the question of some important decisions regarding family affairs. It is obvious to say that education furnished opportunities to women to give their consent in marriage that onwardly resulted in good relations in their respective families. The marriages not carrying women's consent led to lack of understanding in spouses and that appeared in the form of tense relations.

Table II Relations of empowered women with their husbands

Marriage

Number Percentage

Relation ship b/w

Husband and wife

With your consent

60

75

Working

Without your consent

20

25

Tense

Total

80

100

Total

Source: Field Survey, 2009

Number

66 14 80

Percentage

82 18 100

Socio-Economic Impact of Empowerment

Table III indicates various socio-economic impacts of woman empowerment. The majority of respondents (81%) agreed that women's empowerment decreased domestic female violence while only 19% respondents had the view vice versa. Majority of the women (82%) admitted their political awareness; 85% showed participation in different activities such as wedding, betrothal, birth of a child, shopping, functions and excursion etc. Majority of

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the respondents (77%) settled the family related matters under rational approach and mostly with consultation of husbands. 75% women endorsed advancement in their living standard while 61% contributed to their family budget. It further depicts that 75% women reproduced children with shared consent and their husbands imposed no restriction on them regarding forced birth as well as short space between the two births.

It is evident from the above data that empowerment developed the sampled women in social and economic domains of life. The study rejected the local gender stereotype that empowered women are arrogant and avoid participation in domestic activities but rather it dispelled such wrong impression. The women preferred to rationalize every action and normally had consultation over sensitive matters. The empowered women got the political liberty; they utilized the reproductive health facility and concentrated on mother care as well as childcare. In brief, they had every socio-economic facility of life at their homes, which are the apparent impacts of their empowerment. Besides, the women's political liberty after their empowerment in the study area has a relevance to the study of Malhotra et al. (2002) that found empowered women's participation in economic, social and political activities also. IFAD (1999) pointed to participation of empowered women in decision making and their access to resources whereas the present study also gives the same conclusion.

Table III Socio-economic impacts of women empowerment

Impacts

Agreed

Reduction in Family Violence

65

Political Awareness in Women

66

Participation in various Activities

68

Rational Approach

62

Shared decisions over property and other important things

62

Improvement in Living Standard

60

Strengthening Family Finances

49

Child's Birth and Spacing

60

Availed health facility on her own

68

Source: Field Survey, 2009

Percentage 81 82 85 77 77 75 61 75 85

Disagreed 15 14 12 18 18 20 31 20 12

Percentage 19 17 15 23 23 25 39 25 15

Impact on Children

Table IV indicates that 95% sampled women facilitated their children in school, college and university level of education, whereas only 5% replied as nil for the reason of their issueless ness. The facilitated children got education at higher learning places, irrespective of gender bias. It means that empowered women did not observe gender difference in their children and sent all of them at different tiers of educational institutions.

Table IV Education facility to children of empowered women

Facility at Different Institutions

Frequency

Facilitated

76

Not-Facilitated

04

Total

80

Source: Field Survey, 2009

Percentage 95 05 100

Table V indicates the respectful behavior of children of empowered women, 88% perceived their children respectful, 81 % observed them well mannered, 89% deemed them obedient and only 11% had children with harsh attitude. It was observed that women's empowerment led to development of good personality traits of their children such as obedience, etiquettes and respect towards parents or other seniors.

Table V Children's behavior of empowered women Children's Behavior Respectful Well mannered Obedient Harsh

Source: Field Survey, 2009

Frequency 70 65 71 9

Percentage 88 81 89 11

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

From the obtained data it becomes clear that empowered women were mostly qualified that played an important role in their empowerment. They shared in financing their family budget; they equally tackled the family affairs; they better managed domestic chores; they consulted their male heads in successful pattern of life through developing rational approach on all important issues; they shared in decision-making both inside and outside activities; and they furnished opportunities of better schooling, entertainment and health to their children. Their children behaved gently towards seniors and posed confidence in their personalities. The study further revealed that the empowered women did not exercise any gender bias among children. In a nutshell, the empowered women were satisfied over their empowerment position as their socio-economic status upwardly jumped and their act of empowerment did not harm the existing social structure. The study recommends that the rural community should be facilitated in the sphere of education regardless of gender discrimination, so as men and women both could improve their standard of living. It will enable the community to hold a lenient approach towards important issues, and so culturally developed wrong impressions or gendered stereotypes will mitigate.

REFERENCES ICPD. 1994. Guidelines on Women's Empowerment. POPIN, UN Population Div. Deptt. of Econ. & Social Affairs. IFAD. 1999. Review Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. IFAD VIII. Retrieved from:

gbdocs/rep/8/iv/e/REPL-VIII-4-R-8.pdf. on May 15, 2009. Malhotra, A., Schuler, R. Sidney and C. Boender. 2002. Measuring women's empowerment as a variable in international

development. A Paper Prepared for the World Bank. Moghadam V.M. 2005. Modernizing women: Gender and social change in Middle East. Viva Book (Pvt.) Ltd. New Delhi. Naila, K. 2003. Assessing women's empowerment. Retrieved from sed.manchester.sc.uk/research/iarc/word-

files/EINIMarch04.doc, on April 10, 2009. PCI Media Impact. 2009. Retrieved from: news.shtml-21k on May 15, 2009. Thomas, K.W. and B.A. Velthouse. 1990. Cognitive elements of empowerment: An interpretive model of intrinsic task

motivation. Acad. of Mgt. Rev. Vol. 15. Retrieved from . on May 21, 2009. United Nations. 1999. UN Commission on the Status of Women. Retrieved from: .my/uploads/CSWiwd08-factsheet.pdf. on May 20, 2009.

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